Friends of Merri Creek

Moreland Council has just purchased the property at 2 Spry Street, North Coburg, and will add most of the land to the Merri Creek parklands. Plans to build 21 townhouses on the site were successfully opposed by Friends of Merri Creek, Merri Creek Management Committee, local residents, Melbourne Water and Moreland Council at VCAT last year. The property is steeply sloping and on a bend in the Creek, which makes it highly visible to Merri Trail users.

Council will be subdividing the house from the land (the house is a smaller parcel within area A) and opening up the remainder of the land to public use. (See map below.)

Mayor John Kavanagh said, “We think this will be a wonderful addition for the community as it provides a much wider buffer to the creek protecting and enhancing the creek corridor, provide access from Spry St onto the creek and open up the land for public enjoyment. We will on-sell the house after it has been subdivided, provide pedestrian access from Spry St. and hold on to the majority of the land for public use. What a wonderful community asset this will be!”

FoMC received $49,537.00 from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for the Biodiversity On-ground Action grant project: Growing Galada Tamboore – conserving threatened species and ecosystems in Thomastown through community action. This will enable weed control, particularly targeting Lobed Needle-grass and Gorse, plus securing the future of Plains Yam Daisy at the site.

We had an excellent turn up to our training session in May to become Seed Production Area custodians for our Secret Seven project and we now have more volunteers than we needed to tend plants that will produce seed for reintroduction into the Merri environs.

We’ve had a fantastic response to the proposal by FoMC member Anne Frost for a new group of volunteers to gather monthly on a Wednesday morning to help care for Merri Creek. This group will start in August working with Merri Creek Management Committee staff on a range of tasks on the last Wednesday of each month from 10am-12pm.

Public land at 67 and 115 Trawalla Avenue, Thomastown had illegal buildings erected on it and Whittlesea Council had given a retrospective permit for them. On behalf of FoMC, Dr Stephen Rowley opposed removal of the reserve status of this land at VCAT, arguing that it could set a precedent for the subdivision and sale of other land adjacent to Merri Creek. However, VCAT decided otherwise.